Gut reaction to Capers’ hiring

After reviewing Capers’ overall coaching record a few days ago, I had become suddenly nervous about hiring him. He owns a weak, weak head coaching record and an OK D-Coordinator record. As I told Brother Steve yesterday, my preference would have been to wait for a younger guy and take a chance (Keith Butler or AZ’s LB coach – apparently the Eagles Sean McDermott was not really an option after all as the Eagles wouldn’t have let him interview, according to Tom Silverstein).

However, now that we have apparently hired Capers, I must say, I’m not super pumped up but I’m also not totally disappointed. My major reason for not totally hating this move is that he has experience and I believe it was perhaps a lack of experience that made Bob Sanders seemingly freeze during some games and not make necessary adjustments. Even though Capers failed as a head coach, he may just be one of those guys who is better not being THE guy. I could be wrong here because I have seen Capers have that dumbfounded, no-clue look on his face when things weren’t going right. But something tells me that his experience may help us make adjustments on the fly – especially considering he has 3-4/4-3 and hybrid scheme experience. The one concern I had about my own preference for a younger coach like Keith Butler (and Sean McDermott before he was essentially deemed unavailable), was whether they would be able to recognize the variety of offensive plays coming at the defense and then be able to counter and adapt quick enough.

I also think at least a small part of this hire came down to MM/TT being somewhat afraid for their own jobs. If they take a chance on a young swashbuckler, and the guy/defense fails and the team stinks, chances are more than decent that MM/TT may not be asked to come back in 2010. However, by picking an experienced guy who probably has a quality overall NFL reputation, it is less risky and if the defense sucks, they can say things like “we just need a bit more time for the players to adapt to the scheme” and stuff like that.

(One thing I do like about Capers is the apparent fact that he didn’t get along too well with Bill Belichick and that’s why the Patriots had no problem with him leaving. Now, make no mistake, I greatly admire Belichick’s football mind, but his personality strikes me as, well, jackass-like. He kind of seems like that old neighbor on your block when you were growing up who terrified neighborhood kids because he was such a jackass. In fact, this reminds me, there was once a sort-of-neighbor by our grade school who was so angry that my friend hit a foul ball into his yard when we were playing baseball, that he went into the garage, grabbed a gas can, plopped our hard ball on the driveway and set it on fire. I could see Belichick doing that in a few years).

4 Responses to “Gut reaction to Capers’ hiring”

All Wikipedia did was confirm my suspicion that his lifetime coaching stats don’t make him the “can’t miss” candidate you seem to think he is. I can’t pretend to know a whole lot about the guy – not sure how you’re judging his “coaching acumen” – but I can’t help but wonder why he would go relatively unnoticed by other teams with vacancies (except for the Giants where his good friend is head coach).

Importantly though, I’m not slamming this hire. In fact, I would be excited if hiring him leads to the Pack using a 3-4 defense – or at least a hybrid defense of some sort.

I will admit that Wikipedia was the first source I checked to get a reaction on Capers, because it doesn’t necessarily sugar-coat a person like the news reports. Hell, we could have hired Terry Bradshaw as DC and the new reports would be “well, he is back into football. His years of know-how of reading and slicing up defenses will be a huge attribute to what the Packers need in a defensive coordinator.”

But any hoot, my point in commenting was to say that his Head Coaching record was of expansion teams.

It sounds like Williams turned down the Packer job as his family preferred New Orleans but Williams did have some very good things to say about McCarthy and the Packers team at the Senior bowl. From the JSonline blog:

Williams said all nine teams with openings contacted him. And in his evaluation of each possible destination, the Packers ranked No. 1 when it came to young talent on their defense.

“From the starters to the reserves, the depth of young talent there was really impressive,” Williams said. “That was a big mark in their corner.”

Williams said he was impressed with McCarthy’s organization and the structure he has in place. Williams also felt the Packers, in the end, did very well in getting Capers.